Some Cool Book Deals

While I was enjoying life in the islands, the publishing industry did manage to keep grinding away. And there were some deals signed for what looks to be pretty cool books.

All of this information was taken from Publishers Marketplace which is completely worth the nominal subscription fee if you want to keep up with what editors are buying what books.

• Tom Sims sold a book called Repo Elf to Rachel Trusheim at Cambridge House Press. Evidently Santa keeps an elf on the payroll who goes around and repos the goodies delivered to kids who were only pretending to be good. And one kid tries to stop him. I don’t normally follow much in children’s book publishing, but this sounds pretty cool.
• For some years now, I’ve been wondering why there wasn’t a book on this amazing life. Now, it seems like a book is finally going to happen. Philip Turner at Union Square Press/Sterling purchased the rights to Bob Delaney’s Covert, a book about the NBA referee’s secret life as an undercover agent for the New Jersey State Police. Delaney infiltrated the Mafia and gathered evidence on members of the Genovese and Bruno crime families. Should be a fascinating tale.
• Tracy Daugherty sold Hiding Man, a biography of short story master Donald Barthelme to Michael Homler at St. Martin’s.
• William Gurstelle sold The Art of Living Dangerously to Cynthia Sherry at Chicago Review Press. The book is billed as “a do-it-yourself guide to dangerous, interesting, and remarkable activities, in which readers will learn how to fabricate and use a flamethrower, drive fast, drink absinthe, build a rocket, eat fugu, chase storms, hunt snakes and myriad other living-dangerously skills.” I mean, come on, who doesn’t want to build a flamethrower? I’ve often thought that was the perfect solution to all these back injuries that happen when people have to shovel snow off their sidewalks and driveways.